


One Last Glance/Klance

by Formysecondfamily



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Happy Ending, Homophobia, M/M, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Pining, Racism, Slow Burn, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 13:21:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11578920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Formysecondfamily/pseuds/Formysecondfamily
Summary: It's one last glance that helps Lance begin to care for the one he thought he hated the most.It's one last glance that makes Keith realize that this was only the beginningIt's one last glance that helps the two break in a way that they never thought they could.It's one last glance that begins and ends this story.Would you like to see how?





	1. Important Notes

Hello! Thank you very much for taking the time to read my fanfiction! I apologize that my writing skills are not that honed as I have not written a love story this long in a while. I made this fanfiction for some special people to my heart and if you enjoyed it, I'm very happy to know that you feel that way. These people have been with me since I was very young and have helped me become who I am today. It is thanks to them that I have created this and I wouldn't know what I would do without them. They are my second family and they mean the world to me so this is the least I can do for them. I hope you have a wonderful day, and once again, thank you reading my story! Even if it was just a couple words or the whole story, it means a lot to me that you were even a little interested in my story!

I have created a playlist for this story on spotify:  
https://open.spotify.com/user/janeanelu/playlist/6DEOvIumBHSWWDoYXIdgBH  
An explanation for why each song is on there will most likely be posted at the end if people actually want one~


	2. Chapter 1: Sudden and Short Glances

**One Last Glance/Klance**

**Chapter 1**

“Umm… No.”

“Lance, come on! You know you could use the help!”

“Pidge, I can pass this class without HIS help."

Lance looked over to the boy he mentioned with annoyance.

“Lance, if you don’t suck up your pride, we’re going to ask for his help without you.”

“Hunk, what the heck? You too?”

Pidge and Hunk turned away from Lance and made their way to Keith. Keith had his earphones in so Pidge lightly tapped on his shoulder to get his attention and when he looked up at them, he gave them a look of confusion. Pidge smiled at him and waved.

“Hey! You’re Keith, right?”

Keith nodded in response to Pidge’s question.

“So… I heard you’re pretty good in this class. Do you think you could help me and these guys out? We’re kinda struggling.” Said Pidge as she pointed to Hunk and an approaching annoyed Lance.

“He’s probably not even going to agree. Why’d you even ask this guy?” exclaimed Lance.

“Because he’s smarter than you Lance.” Said Pidge with a smirk.

Keith then looked at Lance and saw him switch his annoyance from him to Pidge. Keith looked at the annoyed boy and realized that he’d never really recognized that boy before. Was he in his class? The confusion led Keith to simply ask,

“Do I know you?”

Pidge and Hunk widened their eyes in surprise and then turned to look at Lance. When they saw Lance’s shocked expression, they couldn’t help but let out a hardy laugh. Keith looked awfully confused at the three. Lance gave the other an exasperated look and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out due to the major shock. After another minute, Lance finally asks,

“Yo-You really don’t know me? I-I’ve…. We-we’ve been in the same classes since high school!”

Keith gave him a look of surprise. _Since high school?_

“You’ve always been trying to one up me! You even followed me here to keep doing that!”

Keith gave him a look of annoyance.

“Dude, I didn’t even know you existed till now, how could I have done that?”

“You must be lying! How could you not know me! We were always fighting for the last spot to be in the top 7% of our class!"

"Oh~ I think I remember you now. You were the annoying guy who kept arguing with the teacher over his test grades, claiming that they're actually higher..."

"They were!"

"Okay, Lance, we get it. Calm down. Now Keith, when do you think we could hold a study group?"

Keith let out a sigh and then looked at Pidge. He then began to think about his schedule and then looked back at her.

"Are the three of you free tonight?"

Pidge then looked over to the other two and then looked back at Keith and smiled.

"Yup!"

-

"I can't believe we're actually doing this."

"Lance, that's the fifth time you've said that."

"I just really can't believe we're going to Keith's dorm room, Pidge. KEITH'S."

"We get it. Get it into your head, you doofus. You've been complaining the whole time that you didn't even notice that we're already here."

Pidge sighed after her final response to Lance's complaints and simply knocked on the door in front of her. The door slowly opened and a Keith wearing a simple white t-shirt and grey sweats came into view.

"Come on in."

The three of them walk into the room and immediately, they're surprised by how clean the room is.

"Are you sure you're a guy?" Asked Pidge with an arched eyebrow.

Keith chuckled at the comment, surprising Lance. _So he can laugh..._

The four of them quickly sat down and opened their textbooks and immediately got to work.

"So what exactly do you three not understand?"

The three then looked at each other and simultaneously said with a serious tone,

"Everything."

Keith sighed and turned the textbook to the first page with actual content. He then looked at the three of them and then began trying to explain everything with basic terms. With time, the three of them were able to build a basic understanding of the subject and were finally able to solve some simple problems together. After finishing the first set together correctly, the three of them looked at each other in surprise and happiness.

"W-We did it! We actually did it!"

Hunk exclaimed his excitement and quickly hugged his two best friends. The three of them smiled together and Keith looked at the scene fondly, his eyes unconsciously landing on a lovely smile owned by Lance. _It must be nice to be smiled at like that..._

"T-thank you... I guess." Said Lance under his breath while evading eye contact.

Keith caught the comment and smiled a little, ignoring his earlier thoughts of annoyance towards the boy and catching the attention of Lance once more. _His smile is pretty nice..._

Pidge and Hunk saw the little interaction and their smiles only widened. Keith was a nice guy. He'd be a nice addition to their little group.

The three went back to work and tried to study as much as they could for the night. When it finally passed 10 PM, the three realized that it was getting late, and made plans for the next study group. The three gladly thanked Keith for his help and started making their way back to their own rooms.

"You having second thoughts about Keith, Lance?" Asked Pidge with an arched eyebrow and a small smile.

"Not a chance... maybe. Ok. I think he's a good science teacher... He's still annoying though."

Pidge laughed at his response. _I feel like that's gonna change._

-

"So the Doppler Effect happens with sound, right?"

"Yeah. So basically, the closer the source that is creating sound is to you, the more sound waves will hit you. The farther it is, the less sound waves will hit you. Do you get it?"

"Yeah..."

"Lance?"

Keith looked at Lance and saw his head in his arms. _Oh._

Keith looked at the other two and found them fast asleep as well. He then looked at the time. 11:43 PM. He shifted his eyes back on to the sleeping three. _Should I wake them up?_

Keith decided not to wake them and instead pulled out some extra blankets and placed them on the three. After doing so, he went to bed and made sure to have an early alarm so he could wake them up earlier enough to still prepare before class. Before he actually fell asleep, he turned on his bed and looked over at the three. _This is nice..._

Keith never thought that being around people could be this pleasing before. He usually works alone, but this... this was a good change for him... maybe.

Keith looked at Pidge and wondered why she would hang out with such guys. He knew she was smarter than the two. Why would she associate with them if she could be with better people who could help her even more? Were these two that special? Keith then shifted his view to Hunk. He was a big guy and he was proud of it. Keith was amazed by his love for food and not doing anything that was associated with labor. He could easily do what his heart wanted and Keith wished that he could do the same one day. Lastly, Lance. The moment Keith's eyes laid on the boy, the feeling of strong annoyance could be felt but they slowly faded when they saw his soft expression as he slept. Keith wanted Lance to look at him like that. Like he wasn't annoying. Like he wasn't a pain. Like he was a friend. Keith continued to stare at the boy until the boy suddenly shifted in position and snuggled more into his arms that rested on top of Keith's table. Keith widened his eyes when he realized that he was staring at the boy for maybe a bit too long and quickly turned over in his bed. _What am I doing?_

Keith laid on his back and looked up at his room's ceiling. His ceiling was plain, white, and empty. There wasn't anything special about it but it suddenly looked more interesting than the sleeping trio next to him. Slowly, his eyes began to close and he knocked out.

-

"Lance? Lance, wake up."

Lance's eyes slowly opened up to see a pair of beautiful, purple eyes staring back at him. _Beautiful? Purple?_

Lance quickly blinked as he woke up with surprise as he realized that Keith was looking at him.

"Wh-what are you doing? What's happening? Where am I? I-I... What?"

Keith let out a small chuckle at the sight of a confused and stuttering Lance with morning bed head. Lance blushed in embarrassment as he saw Keith enjoying him in this messed up state.

"What are you two doing? Lance, let's go! We'll be late for class!" Said Pidge as she quickly pulled Lance's arm and got him on his feet.

"Thanks, Keith." Said Hunk as he yawned and grabbed his things.

"Yeah, thanks!" Said Pidge with a smile as she dragged the two out the door.

Once the three were almost out of his room, Keith decided to start getting ready for class and began to change clothes. The moment he turned around, Lance turned his head to take one last glace at Keith before they left the room and for a brief second, Lance saw Keith take off his shirt and ended up seeing something he wasn't supposed to.

There were burn marks on his back. Cigarette burn marks.

-

_How did he get those marks? Why did he have them? Who made them?_

So many questions were running through Lance's head as he sat in class, ignoring everything around him. He wondered about so many things that could've led up to Keith getting them and if they were the reason why Keith was never seen shirtless or wore tank tops. He then realized and began to wonder... _Why am I so curious about him?_

"Lance... Lance... LANCE."

Lance awoke from his thoughts to Pidge shaking him and yelling his name.

"What? What do you need?"

"Lance, class is over. We're on our way to our next class."

"Oh."

Lance then looked around and saw that the classroom was slowly emptying and the teacher was gone. _Oh quiznak, I just missed a whole lesson thinking about Keith and his marks. I'll try to ask Pidge to give me a review later._

As Lance gathered his things to head to the next classroom, a familiar mullet caught his eye. He quickly got out of his seat and went after the boy with Pidge and Hunk behind him.

"Keith!"

Keith turned around to be met with Lance making his way towards him.

"Do you need something?"

Lance then realized that he approached Keith without actually having a plan or purpose and he just blurted out his name and followed him the second he saw him. He immediately became flustered and tried to quickly make up a reason for calling out to him.

"I-I... Ummm... Y-You wanna try... Ummm wait no... You wanna walk to the next class with m- I mean us?"

Keith watched as Lance turned into a blabbering mess for a bit but was surprised at his offer. He looked at the other two behind him and decided to think _It actually wouldn't be that bad._

Keith gave them a small smile and nodded an okay to show his agreement.

The four of them then made their way to their next class together with Lance cracking dumb jokes and making the other three chuckle a bit, yet cringe to no tomorrow. Keith looked at the three and made a small smile. He was enjoying hanging out with all of them. Even Lance. Lance. Lance... As Keith thought about the boy for a couple of seconds, he realized that the said boy was actually sneaking looks at him. _Is it just my imagination?_

Lance couldn't help but sneak peeks at Keith and keep wondering about his marks. He couldn't help it. He was a curious boy. He began to try to plan a way to get him and Keith alone so he could ask. As he was planning, he began to wonder... should he even ask? Lance began to get worried about asking Keith and was wondering if he'd get mad at him for asking or for prying. He guess that his worry began to show on his face because once again, Pidge gave him a look of concern.

"Are you okay, Lance?"

"I'm fine, Pidge. I promise. Come on, let's find some seats." Said Lance with a faked smile as they entered their new classroom.

Pidge saw Lance fake a smile and got even more concerned. _What exactly could be worrying Lance?_

It was quick, but Pidge caught a short glace Lance made at Keith. Pidge looked at Keith from the corner of her eye. _Keith?_

Pidge decided to think about the problem after class once then it began. She wanted to make sure she knew everything for this lesson in case Lance zoned out again. Even though she knew that she wasn't always there for Lance, she wanted to be there for him now, even if its just through giving him reviews over classes he didn't pay attention in. After all, he was always there for her. _I'll ask him about it later._

-

"Hey Keith... Do you think you can give me a review over today's lesson right now?"

"Oh... sure. Let me just get my notes from my room. You can come with me, if you want and we can study there.

Pidge watched Lance and Keith begin to leave to go study in Keith's room. She was a little shocked that he didn't ask her for the review even though she had prepared for it like usual. _Maybe something was wrong with Keith... I'll definitely ask Lance about it when I see him._

"Hey Pidge... Can you give me a review?"

Pidge looked at Hunk and saw him give her a small smile. _He knew... He knew I was a little upset that my review notes would go to waste..._

Pidge gave Hunk a smile and nodded.

"I would love to."

The two then headed off to the cafeteria to do their work and catch a bite to eat. Pidge made a mental note to thank Hunk later. She was really glad that these two were in her life.

-

"Lance, just because Pidge and Hunk aren't here doesn't mean you can fool around even more. I thought you wanted me to teach you."

"I know... but I'm just so bored... I don't know. I can't find it in me to learn right now. Can we take a quick break?"

Keith sighs and closes his notebook. The two had only been studying for about 20 minutes before Lance had started rolling around his floor and complaining.

"Fine. Just a quick one, okay?"

Keith then laid down on the floor as well and looked at his plain ceiling. The silence slowly began to suffocate the two with awkwardness and Keith couldn't help but begin to talk about science facts he thought were cool to break the quietness.

"You know, the adult human body has 206 bones."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The stapes, the innermost of the three bones in the ear is the smallest bone in the body."

"Haha, Keith, why are you telling me this stuff?"

"I don’t know. They're just things I think are interesting, okay?"

"Okay, okay. You can keep going. I'll just listen."

Keith then began to tell Lance more facts about the human body that he found interesting and simply got more excited with ever fact that he spoke. Lance looked at Keith from where he was and could see the amazement in his eyes. _He really likes Science, huh..._

Lance smiled as he saw a new side of Keith. He decided that he liked watching him talk about something with such elation and enthusiasm. Maybe he thought such a delighted Keith was kinda cute too... Just a little... Maybe he also thought it would be nice for Keith to have such eagerness when talking about him. Maybe...

Keith then looked at Lance and saw that the boy was smiling at him. Keith blushed a little and turned away. When the two had eye contact, Lance realized that he was staring and blushed as well and turned to the suddenly interesting ceiling,

"I was rambling, wasn't I? Sorry..."  
"It's fine. It was nice seeing you all excited about something for once."

Keith smiled. _He said it was nice... He didn't think I was weird..._

Keith couldn't help but have a bigger smile.

The two were once again wrapped in silence, but this time, it felt more comfortable. The two felt like they didn't need to say anything. Just laying together on the floor now felt relaxing to the two.

Suddenly, Lance then remembered about why he even wanted to get alone with Keith in the first place and quickly sat up and looked at Keith. Keith looked back at Lance with confusion from the floor.

"Is something wrong? Do you want to go back to studying?"

Lance then began to sweat with nervousness. He was still scared that Keith would begin to hate him if he asked. He didn't think that Keith was that bad anymore now that he's seen that he could be so nice, but his curiosity was eating away at him.

"No it's... Can I ask you something personal? And can you promise me you won’t hate me if I ask?"

Keith gave him another confused look. _What exactly was he going to ask that made him ask that I wouldn’t hate him afterwards?_

Sadly, like Lance, Keith’s curiosity got the best of him.

“Sure… I guess.”

Lance looked Keith straight in the eye for once and with a serious tone, he finally let the words fall from his mouth.

“I know I wasn’t meant to see them, but I saw the burn marks on your back earlier… Where… How did you get them?”

Keith froze.

“You… what.”

It was Lance’s turn to freeze when he saw Keith’s expression change to a more stoic one. _Oh shit._

“I-I-“

“Lance.”

Keith sighed and sat up. He looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes to try to find his words. He finally lowered his head and looked at Lance.

“I can’t… I can’t tell you. You… Lance I literally just met you… You don’t even like me…”

Lance quickly grabbed Keith’s shoulders and pushed him to the ground the moment Keith finished talking.

“I DON’T LIKE YOU. I don’t. But I still want to know. I feel like… I don’t really get it, but I feel like if you told me, I wouldn’t dislike you so much. Even though I’ve known you for so long, I know nothing about you. It frustrates me. I was literally thinking about it the whole day. I don’t understand why it worried me because I thought I hated your guts, but I guess I don’t hate all of your guts? I’m a literal mess right now, Keith. Please. Tell me.”

Lance never broke eye contact with Keith as he talked but the second he finished, he was met with a hand on his face pushing him back. Once his back his the floor, the hand was removed from his face and this time, it was Keith on top of him, staring at him.

“You wouldn’t understand.” Said Keith coldly.

Keith then moved to get up but Lance grabbed his arm and stopped the boy from moving.

“I want to understand.” Said Lance, never breaking eye contact.

Keith’s eyebrows furrowed in frustration when he tried to pull away from Lance but Lance’s grip was strong and didn’t let him go.

“How can you say that? I can’t explain something like that to someone who dislikes me!”

“I don’t want to hate you, though!”

“UGH! Stop confusing me! Do you dislike me or not?!”

“I DON’T KNOW, KEITH.”

“KNOW, YOU IDIOT.”

“I’M NOT THE IDIOT HERE.”

“HOW SO?”

“I! I-I… I…”

Lance paused before he continued.

“Wait, what are we arguing about again?”

Keith face palmed with his other hand.

“You just proved that you’re the idiot, here. You have the memory of a goldfish.”

“I! No! I have a way better memory than you!”

“I don’t forget what I say after a minute of saying it!”

Lance pouted at Keith while glaring at him at the same time. It was a stupid looking expression to Keith and he couldn’t help to let out a little laugh after seeing it. Keith calmed himself and his facial expression had softened. Keith met eyes with Lance and sighed.

“This is stupid, Lance.”

“Then just tell me.”

“It isn’t that simple, Lance. I can’t just tell you. Don’t be such a child.”

Lance frowned and finally loosed his grip of Keith’s arm. Keith then got up only to sit back down in his original spot. Keith could see that Lance was visibly upset at the outcome of the argument.

“Lance. Your curiosity is just getting the better of you. You can live without knowing.”

Lance sighed and looked at Keith once more. His face considerably less angry, but it showed concern. Suddenly, the serious mood was disrupted by Lance’s phone ringing. The two of them read, “MACHO BRO”

“It’s Hunk.” Said Lance as he quickly grabbed his phone and answered the call.

Keith immediately cracked up at the contact name. _MACHO BRO?!? HAHA!!! WHAT THE HECK!!!_

“Don’t judge.” Said Lance as he sent a glare over to Keith.

“Don’t judge what? Who’s that laughing? Is that Keith? You actually made KEITH laugh? KEITH? YOU?”

“Hunk, calm down. Why did you call?”

“Oh. It’s just getting late, bro. You should come back and get some rest. UNLESS YOU PLAN ON SLEEPING OVER AT KEITH’S.”

Lance sighed and hung up the call. He then looked at the time. He was surprised to actually see that it was late and grabbed all of his stuff. He then looked at Keith who was now finally calming down. The mood became tense again once the two had eye contact.

“I may dislike you now, but you’re a part of my life, Keith. Even though I hate some of your guts, you’re pretty cool sometimes and you look nice when you actually talk about things you like. You teach well and you’re kind enough to teach me and the others. I’m slowly thinking of you as a friend, now. I may be curious, but I’m also concerned. When you’re ready, you can tell me.”

Lance then turned around and left the room. Keith watched Lance’s back move farther and farther away and the door close behind him. Keith sighed and pulled his legs close to him. _A friend, huh…_

Keith looked at the empty ceiling and closed his eyes. _I wish I was strong enough to tell you…_

-

Pidge watches Lance yawn from across the table as Keith continues trying to explain random Physics terms. She sees that the both of them have dark circles under their eyes. Hunk had told her that Lance got back late after “studying” with Keith yesterday. Pidge knows that they didn’t really review as she witnessed Lance get some problems from yesterday’s lesson wrong. She didn’t say anything of it though and just helped Lance try to understand the concepts he missed yesterday. Good thing she practiced teaching it with Hunk since everything was explained easier than usual. After she helped him, she simply sat back down and listen to Keith explain more things and seeing Lance yawn made her realize how tired the two look.

“Did you two have a rough night?”

Lance and Keith simultaneously looked at Pidge at the same time with the same expression. Half-embarrassed and half- confused as to how she knows that they didn’t get any sleep last night. The expressions made Pidge giggle.

“Care to explain what happened yesterday that has made the tension so high today?”

“It’s nothing important, Pidge. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well Lance, apparently it was important enough that the two of you didn’t seem to have enough sleep last night looking at the dark circles you both have.”

The two of them looked even tenser than before and Pidge knew that they didn’t want to tell her what happened.

“Aren’t we all friends? You two have surely gotten closer these past few days. You can even handle sitting next to each other now.”

Pidge watched as the two immediately looked at each other and realized that they were actually sitting next to each other. Then Keith suddenly turned to Pidge and asked,

“We’re friends?”

Pidge laughed at the Keith’s cute expression. He actually looked hopeful with a hint of happiness.

“Of course we are.” Chimed in Hunk.

Everyone watched as Keith made a “Oh.” face and then proceeded to make the cutest smile anyone has ever seen. It was genuine and absolutely adorable. The three of them literally felt like they just died from how endearing he looked. Lance turned red and covered his face from embarrassment from thinking the boy was actually appealing like that and then uncovered it again because he couldn’t help but look at the sweet expression again. Pidge saw the small interaction between the two and sighed and gave up for the day. They’ll tell her eventually. They’re friends after all… Or Lance will blab about it to Hunk and Hunk will tell her. Either way, she’ll know. Pidge couldn’t help but smile at the two of them. _Having friends is wonderful._

Hunk looked at Pidge’s soft smile towards the scene and smiled as well. _Moments like this when everyone comes together really make my day. Especially Pidge’s smile… oh, fuck._

Hunk covered his face that was quickly turning red from the realization. For once, he was thinking about someone who made his heart beat faster than food. And it was his best friend.

“Hunk, you okay?”

Lance and Keith looked over to Hunk who was covering his red face and Pidge getting close to him. Pidge lowered Hunk’s hands and touched her forehead to his.

“Do you have a fever?”

Hunk only got red at the action which made his face heat up enough to surprise Pidge and make her yell,

“YOU HAVE A FEVER, HUNK!”

Pidge then proceeded to pull Hunk up (to no avail) with both of their belongings and then dragged him out of the room to get him back to his bed to get some rest, leaving Lance and Keith alone in the room.

“Lance, Should we check up on him?”

“Nah, he’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Pidge can handle him. Speaking of checking, you need to check my answers.”

Lance and Keith turned back to their work and just began to study again. After a couple of minutes, Keith looked at the time and saw that it was getting late.

“Hey, Lance. You wanna wrap this up?”

Lance looked at the time and realized that it was late as well. He then nodded to Keith and began to gather his things. As he was doing so, he noticed some familiar blank documents…

“OH FUCK.”

Keith looked at Lance with confusion written on his face. Lance looked at Keith with shock on his face and quickly pointed to the documents. Keith proceeded to face palm when he realized the problem. _This idiot literally forgot to do the homework packet._

“Keith, I know what you’re going to say, but please-“

“You had a whole WEEK to do it, Lance.”

“Keith, please. I’m begging you.”

Lance got on his knees and began to beg Keith for help. After seeing such a pitiful face, Keith just sighed and gave in, making Lance jump with joy with the stupidest smile on his face. Keith sighed again when he looked at the time. 10 PM. Keith couldn’t help but think to himself, _This was going to be a long night…_

The two quickly got to work on the packet, with Keith helping Lance whenever he needed it but not completely giving him the answer, which frustrated Lance, but Keith wanted to make sure that Lance knew the content so he wouldn’t fail the next test or rely on cheating. The night consisted of that with a couple of short 5 minute breaks of just laying on the floor looking at the bland ceiling. On their last break, the two finally decided to have a little small talk.

“Your ceiling is so bland.”

“Thanks, I know.”

“You should put stuff on it or paint it.”

“That’s too much work, Lance.”

“I know, but it would be worth it. We look at it all the time after all.”

“I would put posters up there, I guess, but I don’t have any.”

Lance sat up and looked at Keith with excitement.

“I can lend you some of mine!”

“No thanks. They’re probably anime posters or something.”

“Hey! Anime’s amazing! But anyway, they aren’t anime posters! They’re posters with galaxies on them!”

“Galaxy art?”

“Yeah! Just imagine looking up at your ceiling and seeing beautiful stars and colors!”

“…That’d actually be nice.”

“RIGHT? I have a bunch in my room!”

Suddenly, the five minute timer went off and the two moved closer to the table with their work.

“I’ll bring them when I come over next time. You’ll love them!”

Keith made a little smile. He thought that seeing Lance become excited about something like this was nice. The happy face he made while he talked was refreshing to see. He hoped that he would see it again soon. _Maybe he could talk about me like that one day…_

Keith pushed away his thoughts and began to help Lance on the final pages of the packet.

-

“HUNK, YOU’RE SO HEAVY!”

“I’M NOT SICK PIDGE YOU DON’T HAVE TO BRING ME BACK.”

“BUT I FELT YOUR FORHEAD!”

“I WAS JUST REALLY EMBARASSED!”

Pidge was still dragging Hunk to his dorm room and struggling in the process while Hunk protested.

“THEN GET UP AND WALK.”

“I’M TOO LAZY.”

“UGH!”

Pidge dropped Hunk on the ground and dropped to the ground panting.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yeah, I promise. Sorry for pushing you so much.”

“It’s fine. I just wanted to make sure you would recover quickly.”

“Thanks, Pidge.”

“No problem, Hunk.”

Hunk then slowly got up and helped Pidge up. He then proceeded to carry her back to her dorm room, drop her off, and then went back to his own room.

-

“WE’RE DONE!”

Lance breathed a sigh of relief as he finished the rest of the packet. He looked at the time. 2 AM. He quickly mustered the rest of his energy to grab his stuff again. As he was doing so, he spoke.

“Thank you, Keith. Oh my lord, I am so grateful to you, I swear.”

Lance then looked over to Keith and saw that he was leaning on his bed, eyes closed shut, chest rising and falling at a smooth pace. _How cute._

Lance put down his stuff and made his way over to Keith. He slowly picked up Keith like a princess and laid him on his bed and put a blanket over him. He then compelled to say goodnight to Keith just to feel like he knows that he’s leaving so he leaned down and whispered in his ear,

“Good night, Keith.”

Lance then pulled away and took one last glance at the sleeping Keith before getting his stuff and finally leaving the room.

The moment the door shut, Keith’s eyes fluttered open and checked to see if Lance was actually gone. He then proceeded to cover his now flushed face with his hands. _WHAT THE HECK, LANCE._

Keith began to roll around in his bed to ease his embarrassment. He couldn’t tell how much time passed since Lance left, but this new feeling in his heart wouldn’t go away. He was happy yet so embarrassed from the sweet gesture that he could die. No one has ever made him feel this way. No one has ever treated him like that. Not even Shiro. Shiro. Keith quickly grabbed his phone to check the date. Sunday. _I need to go see Shiro._

-

“Lance, where are you going?”

“Oh, I’m just going to, Keith’s. Aren’t you coming, Pidge?”

“Oh! Keith told me to tell you both that he can’t have a study session today.”

“Again?”  
“Yeah.”

Lance looked at his phone and saw the date.

“Didn’t he do this last Sunday?”

“Yeah, I think he just does something important every Sunday.”

“Hmmm….”

“You’re curious as to what he’s doing, aren’t you.”

“And you’re not?”

“Lance, this is none of our business.”

“Oh come on, Pidge! Don’t you want to know?”

Pidge sighed and looked at Hunk, who also showed a look of curiosity. She furrowed her brows in frustration and then sighed again.

“Okay, so what’s the plan then?”

“That’s the feeling, Pidge!”

The three of them then made a plan to simply stalk Keith after class and do it very discreetly.

-

They went back to their dorms once class ended and put on casual clothes that didn’t stand out too much and went to find Keith. Once they located him, they began to sneak around behind him and hid whenever they thought that he would see them. They continued to follow him until they saw him go in to a hospital. The three then looked at each other in confusion. The three couldn’t help but think the same thing. _Why would he go into a hospital?_

“He doesn’t look injured or anything. Right?”

“I agree with Hunk. Did you see any wounds on Keith, Lance?”

Lance widened his eyes and immediately thought about Keith’s burn marks… They were more like scars now. There wouldn’t be any need to treat them now… Lance looked up at the two and shook his head.

“I didn’t see any.”

The three then proceeded to wait outside the hospital because they didn’t even know what to say to the front desk about Keith. They didn’t know if he was seeing someone or getting treated himself. If he was visiting someone, they couldn’t just walk in there and say, “We’re visiting whoever that guy is visiting” and point to Keith. If he was getting treatment himself, they couldn’t just follow him and watch him get treated because they’ll get found out. It left them in quite the predicament and just led them to wait outside and interact with Keith later. As they waited, they all just hoped that Keith wasn’t hurt.

-

“Hey.”

“Hey, Shiro. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better. How are things? Are you still having study groups with those new friends of yours?”

Keith gives Shiro a little smile when he hears him say the word “friends” and Shiro couldn’t help but catch that and smile as well.

“Yeah. I am.”

“It’s nice that you have them now. All you had was me and Allura. Now I can see that’s not the case anymore.”

“They make me feel like I belong, Shiro.”

“I can tell.”

Keith smiles as he talks about his wonderful friends but lowers his smile when he sees Shiro’s prosthetic right arm. Shiro watches as Keith’s precious smile slowly begins to disappear and realizes that Keith is looking at his arm again.

“…That was supposed to be me.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t you.”

“You didn’t have to protect me.”

“I did. You’ve been hurt enough. I couldn’t stand it anymore. This is what I deserve after watching you get hurt and not doing anything.”

“You helped heal me. You gave me food. You did so much for me. That was more than enough.”

“It wasn’t, Keith…”

“I-…”

Keith stops himself before he tears up. Keith looks at Shiro with sadness and guilt laced in his eyes. Keith lowers his gaze and holds Shiro’s left hand.

“Thank you, Shiro. I… I’m sorry that you always have to protect me.”

Shiro lets go of Keith’s hand and places his hand on top of Keith’s head and pats his head. The gesture soothes Keith and makes his smile return again. Shiro calmed Keith so easily. To Keith, Shiro was his home. He was someone who had taken care of him with a kind love and Keith couldn’t help but feel that Shiro was his family. He knew Shiro would always have his back and he would always have Shiro’s. He was irreplaceable to Keith. Shiro hoped that he could always be there for Keith as well and couldn’t bear to see Keith get hurt again. Shiro promised himself that he would protect Keith now and forever. He would do anything to protect him. Keith was precious to him. Protecting him was the least he could do after waiting so long to help him when they were younger.

“No problem, little bro.”

After a little more head pats, Shiro lowers his hand and gently smiles at Keith.

“I’m almost ready to leave. I can move my arm like it’s actually real now.”

Keith’s eyes begin to shine and tears of happiness begin to form.

“Really?”

Shiro couldn’t help but widen his smile.

“I told you, I’d be fine. I’m going to be studying in the same college as you as well.”

Keith couldn’t help but hug Shiro on his bed.

“I’m so happy for you, Shiro. I can’t wait to go to school with you.”

“I can’t wait too. Now you don’t have to visit me every Sunday. Instead, you can see me every day.”

Keith moved away from Shiro and smiled at him.

“I’ll be waiting for you then. I’ll see you soon, Shiro.”

“I’ll see you soon, little bro.”

Keith then turned and left the room, a smile staying on his face. He left the hospital in a wonderful mood. He felt so happy that he thought that nothing could bring him down. After 4 months of visiting Shiro and becoming worried that he wouldn’t get used to his new arm, his worries were washed away with Shiro’s good news.

As Keith left the hospital with a smile on his face, the three who came to stalk him were left confused and astounded at seeing Keith’s smile. They knew Keith never really smiled but now their curiosity has been peaked with the wonder of why Keith left a HOSPITAL smiling. The three kept spouting suggestion after suggestion to try to figure out why Keith would be so happy after leaving a hospital, each suggestion getting crazier as time went on. The three then looked at the time and realized that it was getting late and just decided to ask him the next time they saw him. As much as they wanted to lie, they wanted to know the answer as fast as possible and making a whole scenario out of it would take too long.

-

The three didn’t know how to bring it up the next study session and the mood had become really tense but the really dense Keith didn’t notice a thing. He didn’t notice the subtle glances the three made to each other and the small gestures to tell each other “You ask!”

“Lance, can you pass me that pencil?”

The three quickly stop their gestures and look at Keith, hoping that he didn’t see anything.

“Oh yeah, sure.”

Lance then grabs the pencil in question and hands it to Keith. Lance then looks at what Keith was working on and saw that it was the homework packet they received that day and was shocked to see that he was already on the final page.

“Keith, What in the world! You’re already almost done! Gosh! You’re so smart!”

Keith got flustered at the little compliment but then tried to calm himself because it was Lance who said it. Lance, the guy who said he hated some of his guts. Keith even though he thought about how much Lance hated him, he couldn’t calm his heart from beating so quickly after hearing his compliment and he didn’t know why. He then tried to push away the compliment in an effort to distract himself.

“I-I’m not that smart, Lance.”

Lance was shocked at the comment and immediately fired back.

“Keith, did you really just say that? You’re literally the smartest one out of all of us and that’s saying something because Pidge is a literal genius.”

Keith’s face immediately became flushed and he just shut his mouth because he didn’t know what to say or do. He knew Lance’s compliment was genuine and he didn’t know how to take real compliments well. He was so used to teachers always being fake with him and complimented his work without any real feelings behind them, but two simple compliments from Lance with a serious tone just messed him up. He wasn’t used to this at all. Especially Lance’s compliments. How in the world was he supposed to accept compliments from a guy who’s supposed to hate him? He didn’t know whether or not to be happy because of the fact that Lance disliked him and wondered if Lance was complimenting him, he was coming to like him.

Keith looked at Lance with his red face with mixed emotions all over his face and Lance couldn’t help but give him a smile because it was nice to see a new face from Keith, who was usually not that expressive. Lance thought that this flushed Keith was a sight to look at and he slowly connected the dots and realized that Keith was bad at taking compliments. He decided to keep the information to himself and use it to tease him later. Lance looked at the time and then felt a little grumble from his stomach. It wasn’t that late yet and so he decided that he wanted to get some food. He then glanced back at Keith and decided that he should treat Keith to some food. He was helping them after all.

The smile made Keith even more confused and before he could think about it more, suddenly, Lance stood up and offered a hand to Keith.

“You want to get some food?”

Keith’s heart began to pound a bit more with the sight of Lance extending his hand out to him. HIM. It wasn’t to Pidge or Hunk, but to him. He was stunned by the action but his heart was telling him to take his hand and so his body moved on its own and took it. Lance then helped him up and he smiled.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Pidge and Hunk saw the cute little gesture and looked at each other and smiled. They knew the two were getting closer and closer and that just made the two so happy. Lance was finally finding another person who he could connect with and seeing their friend open up in ways they’ve never seen was nice. They were glad it was Keith too. They knew the boy was a loner and seeing him also open up was quite the sight. They never knew the boy could be so expressive and it was all thanks to Lance. Hunk then wanted to joke around ask,

“Hey! What about us?”

“Oh, you two can come.”

The four of them then left Keith’s room and headed to the nearest McDonald’s Lance’s request. Once they were there, Keith began to order his food and Lance stopped him from paying and paid for Keith himself. Keith was confused at the gesture and once he sat down next to Keith, he asked,

“Why did you pay for me?”

Lance paused and tried to think of his answer. He thought the answer was very simple and so he just looked at Keith and smiled softly before smoothly answering him.

“Well, it’s the least I could do. It’s better than just giving you money for helping us out because this way, I can make sure that you’re actually eating at the same too. I feel bad that we’re just taking up most of your time, you know. Time is important and priceless. That’s why I like to spend most of my time with you all. Being with you all makes me feel like I’m not wasting my time.”

As Lance talks, Keith freezes. He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know what he feels, but he knows that he isn’t grossed out or upset. His confusion towards Lance was gone, but now he had felt confusion towards himself. Keith pauses and thinks about it and he realizes that he actually feels happy. He feels ecstatic. He feels… special. Lance makes him feel special. With each word he spoke, Keith couldn’t help but feel like he was necessary. That he was important. Keith knew that he was a part of Lance’s life. He was someone that drove Lance to do his best in school. He was someone that was able to make Lance upset so easily but seeing Lance treat him so differently just made his heart do flips. It felt like he was finally getting something he had wanted so long. Keith could understand why Lance’s words stirred these feelings up and couldn’t find the reason until he realized… He just wanted Lance to like him. Ever since he had seen himself as the cause for Lance being annoyed… He had always wanted to be the one who made Lance smile instead. Keith didn’t understand why he unconsciously wanted that but he did. He wanted Lance too look at him and smile instead. Seeing Lance softly smile at him was a development that Keith would’ve never expected but seeing that that smile was just for him just made him unbearable joyful. When Lance said his final words, Keith couldn’t help but give him a sweet smile.

Lance watched as his words made Keith make a confused face but his face had changed to show that he was thinking, taking in his words one by one and understanding them carefully as if they would disappear. Suddenly, Keith just shows a blinding smile that makes Lance’s heart skip a beat and he doesn’t know why. He didn’t understand how such a small thing would make his heart pound in such a way or why he had found the smile absolutely endearing. He wanted to take a picture of it and save it forever. He knew how rare it was for Keith to show such a smile and seeing him give HIM one was an absolute shock to Lance. Slowly, Lance had began to think about his emotions concerning Keith and tried to understand why his feelings were changing. Lance knew from the bottom of his heart that he was stupid for thinking this boy, that had an absolutely beautiful smile, could be so annoying. He realized he was so confused was because he was blinded by jealousy to understand that this boy was amazing. Lance put away his competitive feelings and notions of annoyance towards Keith away for this one moment to appreciate Keith blessing him with his smile. He could never get tired of seeing it. He wanted to cherish it. To see it more. For it to be for him. Lance had come to a realization that he wanted this smiling Keith to be in his future. He wanted Keith to keep smiling at him in the following days to come. Lance decided that he wouldn’t hate Keith’s guts anymore. After all, how could he? How could he hate such an honest boy with a stunning smile that pulls him in? He couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

Pidge and Hunk came to the table with everyone’s orders and the two left each other’s gazes to look at the other two.

“Did you two just have a bonding moment?”

Lance and Keith then turn to look at each other at the same time and give each other a little smile before looking back at Pidge and Hunk. Simultaneously, the two both say in a playful tone,

“Maybe.”

Pidge and Hunk then look at each other they both realized what was happening. They were falling for each other. Pidge and Hunk did side glances at Keith and Lance who were now eating to make sure that they were thinking the same thing and then nodded when they knew for sure that they were on the same page. They then turned to face the two and smiled. They both couldn’t help but think, _I can’t wait to see how this plays out._

-

The three get back from eating and begin working again. The moment they begin working, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk all do face palms at the same time as they all realized that they forgot the one that that had been plaguing their minds. They forgot to ask Keith why he came out smiling from a hospital. The concurrent face palms surprised Keith and made him give all of them confused looks.

“Are y’all okay?”

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance then look at each other in surprise and then look back at Keith with widened eyes. Lance and Hunk held back sudden laughter and Pidge couldn’t help but add some insurance as to what they just heard.

“W-wait, Keith. Can you ask us that again?”

Keith gave them an even more confused look and just went with it.

“A-are y’all ok?”

The three of them all broke out into laughter leaving Keith dumbfounded.

“You actually say “y’all”?”

After hearing Lance’s words, it finally clicked in Keith’s head. _Oh._

Keith immediately began to blush from embarrassment.

“I-Is it that bad?”

“Oh my lord, Keith. We knew you were from Texas but hearing you say “y’all” so casually was priceless.”

Keith continued to get redder from embarrassment as Hunk spoke.

“You don’t have a Texan accent at all so this was a surprise! We didn’t think that Texans actually said “y’all”, but you just proved us wrong. You looked so cute when you said it too!”

Keith covered his face the moment he hear Lance call him “cute” and Keith didn’t think he could turn redder than he already was but, man, was he wrong. The three continued to laugh and Pidge began to speak after she calmed down a bit and wiped her tears from her eyes.

“It’s not like we hate Texans and their accents, Keith. We just think “y’all” is just really funny sounding to us.”

Hearing that lessened Keith’s embarrassment but he couldn’t help but keep thinking that Lance actually called him “cute”.

Suddenly, Keith’s phone rang. It was Shiro. Seeing his contact pop up on his screen, Keith quickly calmed down and grabbed his phone to answer it. As they saw Keith pick up a call, the three completely calmed themselves down so Keith could hear whoever he was talking to properly. They were all then shocked to see Keith make the same face as he was making as he exited the hospital. He was smiling.

“Shiro?”

“Hey, little bro.”

“Why’d you call?”

“Well… I’m here.”

“Here?”

“I’m out of the hospital.”

“Really?! Already?!”

“Yeah. I’m at the main building right now with my stuff. I’ll wait for you.”

“I’ll be right there!”

Keith quickly ended the call and grabbed his things.

“Sorry, guys. I have to end this study session a little early. I have to go somewhere.”

Before Keith could head to the door, Lance grabbed his arm from where he was sitting on the floor, stopping Keith in his tracks. Keith looked back in surprise and confusion at Lance who was giving him a very serious tone.

“I’m sorry for stopping you, Keith…”

Lance then looks back the other two who then nod in approval to ask Keith and Lance nods back and turns back to Keith.

“But the three of us have something very important to ask you.”

Keith stands in his place and pauses. He then sighs.

“Okay, but make it quick.”

“We saw you leave a hospital yesterday smiling… What did you do in there?”

Keith then paused again. Again, Lance just manages to see things about Keith that he usually keeps hidden yet asks about them so easy. Keith wanted to ask why the three how the three saw him in the first place, but he knew that they would bring up the subject. Keith pulled away his arm from Lance’s grip and sat back down on the ground. Keith looked up at the three of them and sighed. He had grown closer to them these past few days more than anyone he’d ever known from school before. They were special. Keith could trust them. Keith wanted to trust them. This was a part of him that he kept to himself and making himself vulnerable and sharing it had always been a fear. He was scared people would take this part of him and break it. He hoped from the bottom of his heart that these people were as great as he thought they were. He hoped that they wouldn’t break him. Because of his fears, Keith decided to only share a little bit of the story. As much as he wanted to trust them, he couldn’t. Not yet, at least. Keith breathed in and then slowly let out his breath. He then looked at all of them in the eye and then looked up at his bare ceiling.

“I-I… I’m going to see this guy named, Shiro. He… He’s someone who has taken care of me a lot when I was younger and has helped me a lot. He’s a very important person to me… He’s like an older brother that I’ve never had… He… He was hospitalized a couple of months ago before school started and I’ve been saving my Sundays to visit him. He told me he was finally leaving the hospital yesterday and he just called me to say that he’s actually here now.”

The three of them look at each other and then at Keith. They all understood that this was something very personal to Keith and that it was nearly impossible that he would actually open up about something like this and seeing that he did, even if it was just a little bit, meant the world to the three. They were happy to know that they were important enough to Keith that he didn’t just brush them off. Pidge got up and helped Keith up and the other two followed suit and stood up as well. Pidge held on to Keith’s hand and looked him in the eyes, her gaze not faltering.

“Keith. Thank you for telling us.”

Pidge then looks at Hunk and Lance and moves her head and motions them towards the door. Pidge then looks back at Keith and says with a smile,

“Now let’s go see Shiro together!”

Keith was surprised by Pidges words and immediately gripped at her hand.

“W-wa-wait! T-Together?!”

Keith extended his hand to stop Lance and Hunk from walking out the door.

“All of us?!”

Pidge then giggled from Keith’s actions. Seeing a new side after new side of Keith was absolutely wonderful. Pidge then began to pull a very hesitant and flustered Keith out the door with Lance and Hunk following behind. Pidge didn’t know exactly where Shiro was because Keith kept on refusing on telling her where he was a decided to take a hard guess that he was in the main building because she knew that that was where new students usually enter the school. Keith began to get even more flustered the closer they got, confirming Pidge’s guess.

Once they got there, Pidge continued to drag Keith until she had bumped into a very buff guy. She quickly apologized and then looked back at Keith to ask him where Shiro was. Keith then widened his eyes when he met eyes with the guy that Pidge had just bumped into. It was Shiro. Pidge saw Keith’s eyes widen and then she looked at what he was looking at and saw that it was the same guy she bumped into and then connect the dots. She quickly let go of Keith’s hand and extended it out to Shiro and gave him a smile.

“You must be Shiro! Nice to meet you! I’m Keith’s friend, Pidge!”

Shiro looked at the girl with confusion but then shook her hand and smiled back. He couldn’t leave a girl standing, right?

“Nice to meet you, Pidge.”

Lance and Hunk come up from behind Keith and greet Shiro as well with warm smiles.

“Nice to meet you, Shiro! I’m Lance!”

“And I’m Hunk!”

“Nice to meet you too as well.”

Shiro then looks behind them to see Keith all flustered still. Shiro puts his hand on his head and softly pats him. Keith’s nerves immediately calm down and Keith looks up at Shiro and smiles.

“Nice friends you’ve got, little bro.”

Keith then envelops Shiro is a tight hug and Shiro couldn’t help but hug him back.

“It’s nice to see you standing again.”

As the three watch them hug, they then finally notice Shiro’s prosthetic arm and the scar he has on his face. Immediately, all three of them think: _HOLY MOLY! THAT’S SO COOL!_ (like the nerds they are.)

Pidge quickly breaks the moment between Shiro and Keith to pull Shiro away and examine his prosthetic arm and looks at the man with excitement written all over her face.

“YOU HAVE A PROSTHETIC ARM?! OH WOW! THIS IS AMAZING! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BUILD A PROSTHETIC ARM! HOW DOES IT FEEL? DOES IT HURT? IS IT HEAVY? IT LOOKS SO COOL!”

Hunk then follows after Pidge, feeling excited about seeing a guy with an actual scar on his face.

“YOUR SCAR LOOKS SO COOL! WHERE DID YOU GET IT?! WAS THAT TOO PERSONAL? SORRY. BUT OH WOW YOUR SCAR IS SO COOL!”

Shiro couldn’t help but laugh at the two. He was surprised when he was pulled away from Keith but he had never experience such excitement from people before. It was a nice sight, seeing two people freak out over things he had thought were once bad. He had thought that having a prosthetic arm wasn’t cool at all and it just showed people that he was useless. He also had thought that no one would approach him because of his scar because they would think he was a gang member. However, all of those past thoughts had been washed away completely the moment these two had shown interest. He was thankful to these two, even if he hadn’t really known them that much yet. He was also thankful to all of them for taking Keith while he was in the hospital. He couldn’t wait to spend more time with these lovely people. Shiro looked back at Keith who was now trying to calm down Lance who was now also freaking out about how cool and buff Shiro was. Keith turned and met eye contact with Shiro and Shiro gave him a small smile and mouthed, _You have wonderful friends._

Keith couldn’t help but smile back and mouth back, _I know._

-

After a few more moments of Lance, Pidge, and Hunk freaking out over how cool Shiro is, the three finally calmed themselves down and went back to acting like decent human beings which made Keith sigh in relief.

“They aren’t always like this, I’m so sorry.”

Shiro chuckled at Keith’s apology. Seeing Keith’s friend’s and how they really are or how crazy they can be right from the get-go was quite the sight and it really helped Shiro understand what kind of people Keith had been hanging out with. Shiro could see that they don’t lie themselves and was nice to see that Keith was around such people. Maybe Keith could become more open with them and seeing that Keith had actually introduced people to him showed Shiro that maybe he had already started opening up with relieved Shiro. He was glad that his precious little brother wasn’t a loner anymore. He believed that these people would have his back. Or he hoped so at least.

Shiro patted Keith’s head and smiled at him.

“You don’t have to apologize, Keith. They’re lovely people.”

Pidge and Hunk then grabbed Shiro’s attention by tapping on his shoulder and immediately, Pidge offered to take Shiro around the school to show him around. Before he knew it, Shiro was being taken around to the school with Hunk and Pidge as his guides. They simply showed him around and tried explaining the actual rules and some unspoken ones like not saying that you hate the cafeteria food in front of the cooks or they’re kick you out of the cafeteria.

Little did they know, the three had left Keith and Lance alone. Keith sighed and scratched his head. He didn’t know what to do. He was going to be the one to show Shiro around but Pidge and Hunk stole him away before he could. Keith was excited to finally spend more time with Shiro, but he guessed that excitement would have to saved for later when he can actually hang out with Shiro. Hopefully tomorrow, they can properly hang out for once.

Lance realized that it was only the two of them left as he watched Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro disappear from his sight and looked at the time. He saw that it was getting late and looked over at Keith.

“You wanna head back?”

Keith shrugged at Lance. He didn’t know what else they could do and he didn’t feel like waiting around for them to come back since the campus was actually pretty big and they would take a while.

“Sure, I guess.”

The two then walked back in silence and the moment they got back, Lance had a revelation.

“I TOTALLY FORGOT.”

Lance’s sudden outburst made Keith jump a little and look at him with surprise and confusion. Keith felt like today was just him getting surprised and confused over and over again and it was all thanks to his friends. Keith smiled a little when he thought of the three as friends. It felt unreal to Keith that he actually had made some friends. He knew that it was very late in his life to make some, but he did. His loner, awkward self, managed to actually make some friends.

Lance quickly moved over to his backpack and pulled out multiple rolled up posters.

“I brought the galaxy posters!”

Lance held out the posters and smiled like a child. Keith couldn’t help but widen his smile. Seeing Lance like that, Keith could help but think that Lance looked absolutely endearing like that.

Lance saw Keith’s smile and saw that it looked familiar. It wasn’t like ones he had shown Lance on purpose in the past… No this one was different. It was like the one Keith had made when he came out of the hospital. The one Keith had made when he talked to Shiro on the phone… When Keith saw Shiro again… It was a special smile made for Shiro and Lance knew it wasn’t his… Lance knew that Keith had said that Shiro was like a brother to him but this sweet smile… this sweet smile was reserved for Shiro… Shiro… Lance thought of the man and thought about how cool he was for a couple of moments but then realized that Shiro had never answered how he got his scar… or his arm…

Keith watched at Lance’s smile slowly disappeared and Lance began to look at him seriously. It was a familiar face. It was the same one he showed Keith when he asked about his burn marks… Keith quickly became nervous when he saw that face and a thick silence came over the room. The tension was slowly rising once more and Keith didn’t know what to say to evade whatever Lance was going to say. Keith was too late to find an excuse before Lance let what he was thinking slip out of his mouth.

“Keith… How did Shiro lose his arm? Was his scar related to it?”

Keith bit his lip and silenced himself. He knew Lance would ask about it. He knew how curious the boy was. He knew that the boy could easily ask about personal things without any shame. He knew… He knew but he didn’t do anything to stop it… Instead, it felt like Keith wanted him to ask. Keith wanted him to ask him these questions so Keith could finally let everything out. Keith wanted to tell Lance everything but at the same time, his fears were reappearing. His fears were stopping him again. Keith looked at the posters and quickly grabbed them to evade the subject.

“L-Let’s just put these up.”

Lance stood in silence, waiting for Keith’s response only for Keith to evade the subject and sighed. Lance then turned and started helping Keith put up the posters on his ceiling.

Putting on the posters didn’t really take that long and the silence began to swallow the two once more. Lance laid down on the floor and looked up at the “stars”. Keith decided to do the same and looked at all of the beautiful posters. _Lance was right… These are beautiful…_

Keith then sighed and closed his eyes. The darkness surrounded him and all he could hear was his breathing mixing with Lance’s. It wasn’t dead silent but Keith could feel much calmer. The tension from earlier had made him so nervous that he couldn’t think properly. Keith opened his eyes and looked at the art pieces. They were all different but they all had beautiful galaxies on them and Keith could never get tired of looking at them. They calmed Keith more than the plain ceiling they covered ever could. They made him realize how small of an existence he had. Keith looked over at Lance from the corner of his eyes and saw that he was still looking at the art work. Lance… Lance made him feel special. He made Keith feel needed. He made him feel irreplaceable. Even though Keith’s existence was so small, Lance made him feel like his existence meant the world to him and the others. Thinking about how Lance made him feel helped him understand that he knew from the bottom of his heart that Lance was special to him. No one could replace him as well. From the moment their relationship began, Keith had always wanted Lance to like him. Lance was the only one who could make him feel like this. Lance was the only one who could fill his mind so easily and make him happy with simple compliments. With Lance, he didn’t feel like he was just a friend or a family member. With Lance, Keith felt like he could trust him. With Lance, Keith felt like he could overcome his fears. Keith looked back at the galaxies and admired them a bit more before he breathed in and slowly let out his breath. Keith closed his eyes for a moment to push away his fears and opened them up to see the beautiful galaxies once more. _Here we go._

“When I was little, I was told that my parents left me in front of a foster home as a baby because they didn’t want me. In that foster home, I was treated awfully because the foster parents didn’t want to take care of this random kid that showed up at their doorstep out of nowhere…”

Lance had been staring at the art pieces with a blank mind. He didn’t know what to think or do in that moment. Suddenly, Keith began to speak about his life and Lance turned to him and watched the boy talk about his life as he looked at the painted galaxies above him.

“I don’t really remember much after that, but I suddenly got moved to a different foster home. The officers that took me to the new home never really told me why I was moved too. In this new home, it was where I met Shiro and Allura. The foster dad of the place raised all three of us on his own but he did it unfairly. Shiro was his actual son so he was spoiled with things and was never punished. Because I was a little older than Allura and the boy, I was forced to do most of the hard labor around the house like fixing the walls and building the shed in the bad. I would often get hurt from such jobs but whenever I complained or was caught complaining behind our dad’s back, I wouldn’t get food for the next two days. It sounds bad for me but… it was the worst for Allura. Allura was like me. She was abandoned by her parents at a foster home as a baby and was then suddenly moved to this house at the same time as me. But thing was… She was African American. She had a darker complexion and that… that always triggered our dad. Every time he saw her, he would try to throw something at her or whenever he was drunk, he would feel her up. He would make her do all of the chores and wouldn’t let her get any sleep some days just because he felt like it. He liked to make her wear only her underwear around the house so whenever he threw something at her, he would make sure that she would get hurt. He detested Allura so much… Shiro and I couldn’t do anything… For so long, we grew up with this abuse. If I tried to call the cops, he would grab Allura and put knife by her neck and threaten that he would make her suffer even more… If I tried to do something to help her, he would starve me or double my workload. That didn’t stop me from helping her though… A few months ago, it was almost time for Allura and me to leave for college but… Our dad didn’t want Allura to leave. He felt that Allura didn’t deserve to have a better education and when she finally stood up for herself…”

Keith sat up and started taking off his shirt. Once it was off, he showed his back to Lance. His back was scattered with cigarette burn marks… Lance wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. This was Keith. Lance sat up and sat behind Keith and began to touch his burn marks slowly… Lance felt them all. There were 20 in total. 20.

“Allura stood up for herself that day. I was proud of her. I don’t regret her doing that at all. Allura stood up against our dad, but that only made him more furious. He then grabbed the cigarette he was smoking and was about to jam it onto Allura’s arm, but I stopped him before he could do it. That’s when the burning started… Whenever he got pissed off at anything at all, he would grab me, rip off my shirt, and make a new burn mark…”

“Where did Shiro come into this? Wasn’t he his actual son?”

“Shiro…”

Lance could see that Keith was visibly trembling now.

“Shiro wasn’t always nice. Because he was the actual son of our dad, he would get better treatment and that made him very stuck up at first. One day, that changed when he saw Allura get a really bad cut after his dad threw a pot at her. Shiro knew that he couldn’t openly help her so he waited till his dad was gone. He then used his privileges to help Allura. Allura and I were very thankful to him at that moment and that was the first time Shiro had ever helped us. Soon, that pattern kept repeating and Shiro continued to use his privileges to help heal the two of us from the behind the scenes. The reason why I became educated in the first place was because Shiro had taught me and Allura whenever our dad wasn’t looking. Shiro would bring home his textbooks for us and snuck us out to take tests. Before we knew it, we were accepted into college. It’s because of Shiro that I’m here today. All of these burn marks… Each one, Shiro tried to heal with home remedies… If he was still heartless towards us, I probably would’ve died from these wounds or they could just look much, much worse…”

Lance furrowed his eyebrows as he heard Keith speak. _How could someone… How could someone hurt Keith like this?_

Suddenly, Lance heard a sniffle. Lance looked at the back of Keith’s head and he realized that it was Keith. Keith was crying. Lance didn’t know if he was worth enough to see Keith’s face as he cried but… He knew he needed to comfort him. He needed to show that he was there for him. Lance turned Keith around and took in the sight of Keith crying. His beautiful purple eyes were soaked with tears and his soft cheeks were drenched, tears leaving their marks on his pale skin. Lance put his forehead against Keith’s and put his hands on his face and wiped his tears with his thumbs. Keith’s continued to fall non-stop and he spoke through his tears, pausing every now and then to sniffle.

“S-Shiro… Shiro got t-tired or watching his dad hurt us and so h-he… he finally called the cops… O-our dad quickly found out and grabbed me to threaten S-Shiro… He broke a w-wine bottle and slashed S-Shiro’s face… Bu-But then Shiro grabbed me and pushed me away fr-from our dad, but then he… Our dad stabbed Shiro in his arm a-and… and… h-he kept pushing it in… T-The police finally arrived and they pulled o-our dad away… They put him away for now… S-Shiro… S-Shiro’s arm had to get amputated because of how deep the w-wound was… A-Allura used the money Shiro stole from our dad for her to g-go to college for S-Shiro’s treatment so now she… S-She just stays at home…”

Keith put his hands on top of Lance’s that were still holding Keith’s face and wiping his tears. Keith lowered Lance’s hands and wiped his tears on his own. His efforts were to no avail as his tears kept flowing. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and found himself in Lance’s arms. Lance was slowly rubbing his hand on his back, over his burns.

“I… I feel so useless… It’s because of me that Shiro lost his arm… I… If only I was strong enough to stop our dad from stabbing Shiro…”

“Shhhh… It’s not you’re fault. You know this. You’re not the one who stabbed Shiro…”

Keith slowly calmed down in Lance’s arms with Lance comforting him with his little “Shh”s and gentle back rubs. Suddenly, Lance began to speak.

“This time, it’s your turn to listen… So for me, I have one older brother and two older sisters. My brother is the eldest out of all of us. My brother looks like me but he styles his hair up and has my body type but just a little bigger because he’s a bit taller than me. He’s mostly calm but he can be very caring. His name… was Luis. My two sisters are twins. They have brown hair that flows down to their shoulders, making them look younger than me but they aren’t. They are quite small in size like my mom, but they are the thinnest out of all of us, yet they are the loudest and most intelligent. Their names are Lola and Leya. My mom... her name is Landa. She… she small. She’s not that thin but she is full of love and compassion… yet at the same time, weakness. She has dark brown locks that fall around her lower back. She’s the shortest and quietest out of all of us… My father… He named me after himself. He… He is very strict and cold-blooded. He is the tallest out of us. I always thought that my brother was the strongest out of all of us but one day… I saw his heart die. I saw the light fade from his eyes that day. He broke… That day… My older brother came out as gay to my parents. My father… my father disowned him. The moment the words left my brother’s mouth, my father got up and went to his room and started throwing his belongings out little but little. My mother couldn’t do anything. She was always more accepting than our father… but she grew up believing the father had all the power in the household… so she did nothing. She did nothing as her own husband abandoned her own son. She did nothing as our family broke apart. That day… I saw my brother standing outside in the rain with his belongings. He just stood there. I couldn’t tell if he was crying or not as he gathered some of his things in the hard pouring rain. It was the most heartbreaking thing I’d’ve ever seen in my life… After seeing my parents… The ones I thought were supposed to keep the family together… After seeing them break apart my brother like that… I just couldn’t bear to look at them anymore. I began to ignore them and just focused on school. I couldn’t wait to go to college so I could finally leave them…”

This time, Keith could feel Lance tremble. Lance held his tears in, but the sadness could still be heard from his voice.

“That day… I didn’t just lose my older brother… That day, I also lost the love I had for my parents… I lost the family that made me who I was… I was suddenly separated from the person who I respected the most. I miss him, Keith. I miss seeing him and playing around with him… I wish we could’ve had more moments together before he left… I wished my parents just accepted him. I’m scared, Keith. I’m scared that if I end up liking a guy, they’ll treat me the same way and I don’t want to leave my older sisters alone. They’ve already lost their older brother… I can’t imagine how they would feel watching me leave too… My family used to mean the world to me… Now it’s just broken… I want to fix it. I want to fix it so badly, but I don’t know how and it frustrates me. I don’t know if I do like guys or not, but no matter what, I just want to repair my family…

Keith begins to pat Lance’s back gently.

“It’s okay… I believe that one day, your family can come back together.”

Lance pulled back and looked at Keith. His eyes were still puffy, his cheeks were still a little wet. He looked so different from how looks on a daily basis. Lance was glad that he could finally let this out. He never told this story to Pidge or Hunk yet so Keith was the first one to hear it. He was surprised that he could hold in his tears. Lance guess that he simply wanted to stay strong and look good in front of Keith. Lance looked at Keith’s worn out face and smiled.

“Thank you, Keith.”

The two then held each other in each other’s arms for a bit more, sniffling and rubbing each other’s backs as a sense of comfort. Keith found Lance’s warmth soothing and comforting. He was glad he finally told someone. He was glad it was Lance. He was glad to know that Lance knew the pain of what it feels like watching your older brother get hurt. How it feels like to be scared beyond belief. He was glad that Lance was able to understand. He was simply delighted.

Lance found Keith’s warmth calming and wanted the moment to last. He loved his warmth and how he loved feeling Keith’s arms around him rubbing his back. He loved how gentle Keith was with his backrubs and hearing his slow breathing soothed him so much. He was happy he told Keith. Keith was special to him and he wouldn’t want to share this information for the first time with anyone else. He was thankful that Keith was alive and in his arms.

In this moment, the two felt like their shoulders were relieved from a giant weight.

After a few more moments, the two pulled away and looked into each other’s eyes. They knew that their relationship was never going to be the same after this. They can’t help but smile because of the relief of getting all of this off their chest to someone they could now trust.

Lance then tried to perk up the mood.

“Holy fuck, you look so ugly when you cry.”

“You do too, you idiot.”

The two break out into chuckles as they let go of each other and lay down on the floor again to look at the stars.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry. You’re not alone anymore.”

“Do you still hate me?”

“Nah. To be honest, I don’t think I ever really did. I was just jealous.”

“Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, Lance. Thank you.”

“You’re so fucking emo.”

“Shut up.”

“…You know, I should be thanking you. You’re a nice addition to our group. Pidge and Hunk really like you. I guess I do too. Thanks. For always helping us out.”

“No problem.”

“You even helped me finish that packet. We did it pretty quickly too considering it was whole week’s worth of work. I guess we make a good team.”

Lance looks at Keith on the floor and smiles at him. Keith sees him smiling at him and turns to meet his gaze and softly smile back.

“I guess we do.”

The two then look back up at the galaxies.

“You were right. These are actually pretty nice.”

“I told you. I knew you would like them. I mean, how could you not? They’re gorgeous.”

Keith suddenly yawns and then he looks at the time. 1 AM. Keith sits up and realized that their heart to heart lasted a bit too long. Keith then made his way on to his bed. Lance got up and Keith thought he was going to get up and leave but instead, Lance pushes Keith over in his bed and then lays next to him.

“What are you doing?”

“Going to sleep.”

“Lance, it’s 1 in the morning. I don’t have time for this.”

“I don’t either, now let me sleep.”

Lance then proceeds to grab most of the blanket and wraps it over himself.

“Lance, this is a twin bed.”

“You take up most of the room.”

“You take up most of the blanket.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Lance, I thought we just had a bonding moment! We held each other in our arms!”

“Nope. I don’t remember.”

Lance then turns and falls asleep, annoying Keith. Keith then breathes a sigh and turns the other way and tries to get some sleep. Even though we was a little upset that Lance is forcing him to sleep uncomfortably on his own bed with less than half of his blanket, he couldn’t help but smile because he couldn’t act like this with anyone else. He liked this feeling… being with Lance. It gave him this sweet, warm feeling that he actually liked and he hoped that his moment would last. Little did he know, he would quickly fall asleep next to Lance’s warmth.

That night, Keith would have a dream of Lance. It wasn’t much but it was a simple dream. It was a dream where the two are standing on top of a building and watching a sunset. There was no serious tension or awkwardness surrounding them. Instead, it was just the two of them holding hands and watching the sunset. For some reason, Keith was crying in his own dream but he felt like they were tears of happiness. Keith didn’t know what the dream meant or if it was something he wanted in the future. All he knew was that he was happy with Lance. Lance made him feel things that no one else could. Not even Shiro. And that is saying something. Lance had become something so special to Keith didn’t know how or why it happened so quickly. He never would’ve dreamed of telling someone his past. He knew it wasn’t pretty. Even so, it made him who he was. Sharing this with Lance had made him very vulnerable but because he told Lance, he didn’t feel vulnerable at all. Instead, he felt like he was understood. Accepted. They felt like new feelings all of again. He knew Shiro and Allura loved him from the bottom of their hearts and made him feel loved in ways no foster parent had ever shown him, but with Lance, feeling these things again made them like new experiences. They felt like they were in another league in their own. For Keith, it was one thing to be accept by Shiro and Allura. For him to be accept by Lance, it brought him unbelievable joy and a feeling of true safety. He hoped Lance would not take this part of him and break it. He’s fears were slowly creeping up on him, trying to make him feel regret and scared of what Lance could do to him in the future, but Keith’s happiness was able to push those feelings away for now. Keith hoped that they wouldn’t return and haunt him later. Keith hoped that Lance would trust him too. Keith didn’t want this relationship to be one-sided. Especially not this one. Keith never knew that meeting Lance would change him so much and even make him brave enough to tell him the things that were always plaguing his mind. He was glad that he met Lance. Though having friends was a whole new experience for Keith, Lance made him enjoy it. With Lance, Keith truly felt like he wasn’t alone. That he was needed. Keith hoped that Lance felt that Keith needed him now too. Keith wouldn’t know what to do without Lance in life. For the first time, Keith felt like he could see himself with someone in the future. He could see himself looking at a sunset with Lance. He could see him crying from happiness from being with him. Seeing the boy smile at him just reminds Keith how wonderful this boy can be. Keith hopes that Lance will teach him more about such feelings and make him feel new ones and they spend more time together. Keith hopes for the future of him watching a sunset with Lance. Keith hopes and hopes for it to happen. The more he hopes, the more he realizes that he wouldn’t want to watch the sunset with anyone else. It had to be Lance. Keith then paused… _Why Lance?_

Keith then realized. He had fallen for Lance. Hard. Keith begins to panic because this was his first crush. He had never felt this type of love before so he doesn’t know what it means yet. He doesn’t know if he actually likes Lance or if he’s just mistaking his feelings of love and they’re actually just feelings of gratitude and appreciation. Keith begins to panic in his own mind but then the scene of him looking at the sunset comes to mind and the feels he feels as he watches himself cry from happiness from watching a sunset and holding hands with Lance makes him sure. This might actually be love. Keith had never thought of having a partner before and suddenly thinking about such things after their heart to heart made Keith begin to doubt his feelings again. Maybe they weren’t real? The more Keith thought about it, the more frustrated and confused he became. He didn’t know when these feelings had actually appeared but most of all Keith worried that he had only fallen for Lance because he was the first one he told his story to and just accepted him for it. He was worried because he believed that his feelings wouldn’t get reciprocated like that. He knew that Lance accepting him wasn’t an invitation to love and so he started to become fearful. He knew that Lance was scared of loving a man because of what happened to his brother and he was scared that Lance would begin to hate him after he finds out his feelings and think that he was gross. It was the last thing Keith wanted. He did not want someone as special to him as Lance to hate him. This panic and jumbled up feelings surrounded Keith and kept frustrating him over and over again until the scene with the sunset popped up again. Keith calmed himself and tried to clear his mind. He dreamed the scene again and again, with each time more sure of what he decided to do. He decided that he would just love Lance. He wouldn’t worry about the consequences or cons. Instead, he chose to simply love him. Because there’s nothing wrong with loving someone. Though he had just figured out his feelings and they are starting in a small place, Keith knew that this was only the beginning. This was the beginning to a lot of suffering and pain, yet a lot happiness and warmth, for Keith. Keith took one last glace at the dream with the sunset and smiled before he opened his eyes and found himself waking up to Lance spooning him. _This was going to be rough._


End file.
